|Chapter Seven|

The classrooms are sparsely crowded with students while a majority roam about the corridors at the morning hours, before classes begin. Chattering like yesterday about random topics, Aisha, Veer and Vivek stroll into their class.

"...And then the Chemistry teacher slapped Vivek accidentally because he misinterpreted Vivek to be me," Veer narrates an old memory to Aisha.

"Oh lord," Aisha laughs. "So overall whatever shit you do, Vivek is the one facing the consequences most of the times?"

"Call it my bad luck, or his blessed ass, Veer always slips out of the mess," Vivek says, eyeing his brother almost enviously.

"What's up over there?" Veer asks, still grinning, as he gestures at the desk on the third row. A crowd has gathered around a desk and most of them are snickering or gawking at something with keen interest.

Aisha furrows her brows when she realizes that it's her seat that the students are gathered around. Striding over to the mass of students, she pushes her way through till she reaches her desk, only to glance at the table with horrified eyes.

The table, which was previously spotless beige and white, is now etched with numerous words and doodles. The words that catch Aisha's eye more specifically in her dazed state include 'Chinese', 'Momo', 'Alien' and the one which hits her like a cold blow on her chest are the words scrambled at the centre of the desk in black marker ink: 'Coronavirus Infected Zone. Keep Away.'

To top this shit up, little green and spiky rubber balls were sprawled over the desk and bench, resembling the comic-version of the virus which had supposedly originated from China.

Aisha feels her knees turn weak as she trudges a step back, her eyes still drinking in the vehement words with her heart thumping against her chest with disbelief. Students around her realize that she is the occupant of the desk and in no time murmurs erupt around her, with the fellow peers eyeing her curiously as if she were an alien creature amid the humans.

Of course, they all have affirmed it internally that Aisha is a Chinese from the messages left over her desk. Tears pool her eyes but she blinks them back, stubbornly keeping herself together.

"What the hell is this shit?" Veer gapes, glancing at the desk with equal revulsion.

"Who did this?" he then asks, glaring around at the students. The fellow peers exchange blank glances and shrug to gesture that they didn't know.

Sighing, Veer turns to look at Aisha and pauses when he takes notice of her shocked self. Aisha looks back at Veer with blank eyes, unable to decide on how to react. Should she cry over it? Or punch some random kid on the face to vent her fury? Or maybe she can just pretend like nothing happened and should get to cleaning her desk up? But, she didn't make this awful, racist mess, right? Why should she clean it all up then?

"Wh-where's Vivek...?" Aisha manages to ask, her fingers still trembling from the amount of emotions she has bottled up inside her.

Looking around, Veer realizes that Vivek isn't anywhere at sight. "Shit," he mutters before taking Aisha's hand in his and leading them both out of the crowd, heading straight down the halls.

"I have a hunch and it's not a good one..." Veer says to Aisha as they rush past the busy corridors. Taking a few turns, they emerge out at the long balconies of the school which face the back of the campus which is occupied by the grassy football field and volleyball and basketball courts along with a narrow sprinting strip marking the length of the periphery.

Loud and chaotic profanities reach the duo in a faint chain from the far end of the field. Scanning the place and following the source of voices, Aisha gapes when she spots two figures at the far end, punching and kicking one another. One of them is dressed in a track suit and appears to have been sprinting the length of the field, while the other is Vivek, dressed in a grey blazer and trousers.

About a dozen students are around the fighting duo, attempting to separate the two boys but it all goes in vain. "No..." Aisha mumbles when she spots a man, dressed in a crisp blue shirt and trousers, stride towards the chaos.

"It's Mr Prasad," Veer tells Aisha as he recognizes the man. "Our vice-principal."

Aisha watches as the man grabs both the boys by their collars and jostles them apart, pulling Vivek off the other boy who now lies over the grounds with heavy breaths and a glare directing at the hazel-eyed boy. Aisha blinks as she recognizes the other boy who was hitting back Vivek.

It's Ayan.

_________

"Consider yourself lucky that you're representing the school this year, Ayan. And Vivek, I'm excusing you this one time only because of your extremely good record at school," the deep, commanding voice of Mrs Kaushik, the principal of Lotus Valley, erupts from inside the principal's cabin.

"I'm getting this asshole published on my paper again," Veer comments under his breath, his arms crossed as he leans against the wall of the cabin, next to Aisha. They have been waiting for the meeting to get over so that they can get to talk to Vivek who is apparently being criticized in the principal's cabin with Ayan.

"Doesn't either of you twins have enough brain?" Payal asks curtly, glaring at Veer who is staring down at the floors. She had joined Veer and Aisha long back when she heard about the outrageous fight that broke out about an hour ago in the playground.

"Payal's right, Veer," Aisha says, glancing at his sullen face. "We don't know who ruined my desk and that means we can't go out and defame Ayan without any strong evidence."

Veer chuckles bitterly. "Just great," he speaks, peering up at Aisha with a frown. "Ayan gets to do whatever he wants, regardless of it being a racist prank, and here I can't even decide on what articles my own paper will comprise of."

"Our paper," Payal states her claim. "Being impulsive never helps, Veer. Look at Vivek, for instance. What has hitting Ayan got him into now?"

Amid their bicker, Aisha spots the hazel-eyed boy appear out of the principal's cabin. She furrows her brows with grief when she takes in Vivek's state. His usually wild, brushed locks are now dishevelled and tousled to one side roughly with his fingers. His previously stark white shirt is now creased and soiled and so are his grey trousers. There aren't too many bruises anywhere at sight and Aisha's internally thankful for it.

Vivek glances at Aisha for a brief moment before turning on his heel and marching away speedily. Pushing herself off the wall on which she had been leaning onto, Aisha brushes past Veer to follow Vivek but a hand grasps her wrist, pulling her back. Halting on her steps abruptly, Aisha throws Veer a questioning look.

"Let him be for a while," Veer explains. "Vivek likes to sort his thoughts in seclusion when something gets messed up."

Thinking about what Veer said, Aisha nods reluctantly before glancing back at the corridors through which Vivek had left.

_________

"Hey..." Aisha trails off when the door to the Deshmukh's residence pulls open, revealing Vivek who answered it.

"Am I late?" Vivek asks, glancing at his watch hurriedly, his one hand occupied by the Mathematics books. "I was about to come over anyway."

"I came to tell you that we don't need to study today," Aisha explains, making Vivek glance up at her. "It's already been a pretty hectic day for you. I figured you won't have the energy to blabber about those square roots and decimals," she adds.

Quirking his lips into a faint smile, Vivek shakes his head. "I wouldn't have come myself if I didn't want to. Relax, we can study."

"Um...okay," Aisha shrugs as she turns around and walks back into her house, Vivek following up.

"Where to...?" Vivek asks when he's about to settle over the living area couch with the books and takes notice of Aisha disappearing into the narrow hallway.

"We'll study in my room, duh," Aisha responds from the hallway.

"Uh...okay..." Vivek mumbles, quickly trudging through the hall and walking into the second bedroom which had its door wide open.

"Why's it so silent?" Vivek asks, placing the books on the study desk.

"Ma and deuta are both at work, and Nitya's asleep," Aisha shrugs.

"Deuta...?" Vivek asks, "You mean your dad?"

"That's dad in Assamese, smarty," Aisha smiles, settling down beside him on an easy chair.

Grinning, Vivek opens the book and passes it to Aisha, asking her to solve the problems related to the theory they discussed last class. Nodding, Aisha gets to work.

Having nothing to do, Vivek glances around the room which is painted in white and blue, a wide set of windows allowing the remaining bits of evening light to brighten the room. Turning, he peeps at Aisha discreetly. Her round face and little nose make her appear to be a little angel, straight out of some enchanting fable. Her raven hair is tied into a bun to the side of her head, with short, dark tresses framing her face, and amplifying those beautiful dark eyes.

"Staring is rude, Mr Deshmukh."

Blinking with realization, Vivek turns away, with his face turning crimson at the embarrassment of getting caught. Pressing his lips, he dares not to look back at Aisha. Smiling a small smile, Aisha resumes to calculating.

About an hour later, Aisha's leaning against her seat, stretching her arms and legs. The class is finally over with Vivek gathering the books silently. The remaining of the evening light was gone now with the sun dipping down the horizon. The lights in the room had been switched on now, brightening the room.

"So, Aisha?" Vivek asks.

Humming, she turns to look at Vivek. It's the first time he called her by her name and it has a weird ring to it, coming from Vivek. A good weird, Aisha means.

"You wanted to talk about something after class...?" Vivek says.

"Oh, right," Aisha nods, her heart beating faster now at the thought of speaking about it. She's never disclosed about her YouTube channel and blogging sites to anyone other than Nitya. Would it really be a good idea to talk about it to Vivek? Will he even agree to help her?

Getting out of her seat, she skips over to the doorway of her bedroom and shutting the door, locks it securely. All the while Vivek looks at her confusedly. Walking over to her bed, she settles over it with her legs crossed on the mattress as she grabs her phone from beside the pillow and faces Vivek who is still seated over one of the easy chairs across the study table.

"Come here now," Aisha says.

"Uh...okay," Vivek mutters, swiftly reaching her side and settling beside Aisha on the bed.

"Now when I tell you that this is a secret really close to my heart, I mean it," Aisha says, looking into Vivek's hazel eyes. "So you gotta promise me that you won't be talking about it with anyone."

"Okay..." Vivek shrugs, trying to figure out what Aisha wants to tell him.

"When I say nobody, it includes Veer as well," Aisha clarifies.

"I'm usually good with keeping promises, so okay," Vivek nods.

Taking a deep breath, Aisha taps over her phone and logs into her YouTube channel, flipping through the video list once. "Basically, I'm a YouTuber and I make hairstyle tutorials which I post on my channel, The A-Stylists," Aisha speaks away, her eyes glued to the screen of the smartphone.

"The A-Stylists..." Vivek racks his brain. "You mean that channel with thousands of subscribers and all...?"

Glancing up, Aisha finds him looking at her with a glint in his hazel eyes.

"Yeah," she nods.

"Oh gosh! You're a famous YouTuber!" Vivek goes on but widens his eyes when Aisha leaps over him, shutting his mouth up with her hand pressed over his lips and her free hand grabbing a handful of his T-shirt to prevent him from falling off the bed.

"Ma can be home anytime now!" Aisha whisper-shouts at him, her hand still clasped over his mouth. Nodding, Vivek watches as she slips her hand off his face and settles back on her spot. Her touch was soft and warm and he can't help but think about it now.

"I didn't know you watched my videos," Aisha says.

"Actually I don't," Vivek grins sheepishly. "I just came across that channel once or twice on my phone but hairstyles aren't my thing so I never bothered watching them."

Aisha's smile falters a little at that and her heart deflates as the words sink in deeper. If Vivek didn't like doing his hair, would he even agree to help her out?

"So what's this fact about you being a famous girl got to do with me?" Vivek asks, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Um..." Aisha forms her words before speaking. "A few users wanted me to make videos on boys' hairstyles and I need a boy to make a practical video..."

"And you want me to be your demo in the practical?" Vivek completes, making Aisha nod with hopeful eyes.

"I don't know...Aisha..." Vivek scrunches his nose, wondering about the offer.

"I promise I won't ruin your hair!" Aisha tries.

Sighing with a smile, Vivek looks up at her with his hazel eyes. "Okay, I'm in."

"Yes!" Aisha cheers, shooting a happy smile at Vivek.

____________

Author's Note:-

Some of us may overlook the coronavirus thing I mentioned in this chapter as 'cliché' and proceed to the next chapters. But trust me, girls and boys with tribal features suffered hell lot during the COVID-19 situation in mainland India only because of their looks which had a similarity to those of the Chinese.

A Manipuri woman had been spat on the face in Delhi by a local who called her 'Corona'. A Naga student returned home when he got hit by the local students in Delhi University, they said he didn't deserve that seat.

I don't intend to create a difference here by bringing up these issues. What I do intend to do is to highlight the inhuman way in which the citizens of the same country are treating one another with. People still have a lot of catching up to do with regard to the phrase "Never judge a book by its cover".

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See ya at the next update!
*waves a goodbye*